1. Field
The following description relates to a memory management technology for garbage collection.
2. Description of the Related Art
A memory managing apparatus searches for available memory in response to a memory is allocation request, and allocates the found memory according to the request. The allocated memory may be used for running a particular program. The program may not explicitly inform the memory managing apparatus of the completion of a job involved in the allocated memory. Instead, a garbage collector may perform garbage collection on a regular basis, e.g., periodically or at predetermined times, to release unused allocated memory.
For example, the garbage collector may determine whether an allocated memory is in use to run a program. If an entity involved with the program does not refer to the allocated memory, the garbage collector may release the allocated memory. Consequently, the released memory may be allocated to another program.
However, the garbage collector may still release a memory that is currently in use. Thus, a garbage collector is desired to accurately determine whether an allocated memory is currently being used or not.